Carla Leite called for the iso.<\/p>\n
Dribbling out the clock, the 5\u20199 guard shooed away her teammates with confidence. The only thing standing between the 22-year-old and the Barclays Center basket?<\/p>\n
Breanna Stewart<\/a>.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Stewart is an elite defender \u2014 one of the WNBA\u2019s most consistent. She\u2019s also 6\u20194. But that didn\u2019t matter. Leite, a 17.3% career three-point shooter in the WNBA, pulled up for three.<\/p>\n Swish.<\/p>\n Leite smiled, knowing she had just iced the game. Thanks to her big triple, the Portland Fire led the New York Liberty by 6 points with 14.4 seconds to spare. Liberty guard Marine Johannes responded with a three-pointer of her own, but the game was out of reach.<\/p>\n The pull-up three was Leite\u2019s second consecutive clutch basket in the final seconds of Monday night\u2019s 81-74 Fire win over the Liberty. Twenty-five seconds earlier, Leite drove to the basket to give the Fire a 5-point lead with 40 seconds to play.<\/p>\n And, Monday wasn\u2019t the first time she took over in the clutch, either.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Two weeks earlier, when the Fire pulled out the franchise\u2019s first-ever win, Leite also stepped up down the stretch against the Liberty. She drove to the basket with 27.1 seconds to play, tying up the game against New York. A Sarah Ashlee Barker<\/a> game-winner ended up securing that May 12th win.<\/p>\n Leite is having a strong all-around season. On Monday, she scored a team-high 18 points on 8-14 shooting; the Fire outscored the Liberty by 8 points in her 22 minutes on the floor.<\/p>\n Leite\u2019s points, rebounds, and assists per game have all more than doubled; she averaged 7.2 points, 1.3 rebounds, and 2 assists per game, and has seen those numbers rise to 15 points, 2.8 rebounds, and 4.8 assists per game this season. Her efficiency has also risen; she averaged 38.7% in her rookie campaign and is shooting 5% better this year in Portland.<\/p>\n The Fire are 3-2 in the five games the sophomore guard has played.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Leite is far from the only reason why the Fire, one of two 2026 expansion teams, have begun the season 4-3. Bridget Carleton<\/a>, the No. 1 overall pick in the expansion draft, is averaging 16.5 points per game, 10 more than she averaged last year as a role player on the Minnesota Lynx<\/a>. Emily Engslter, Megan Gustafson<\/a>, Nyadiew Puoch, and Luisa Geiselsoder<\/a> have all been key contributors.<\/p>\n And, Ashlee Barker, who is averaging 10.3 points off the bench, has also been a monster in the clutch. In addition to her game-winner earlier in the month, Barker completed an and-one driving layup in the final minute of a crunch-time victory over the Connecticut Sun<\/a>. In Monday\u2019s win over the Liberty, she hit a go-ahead corner three to give the Fire a one-point edge with just under four minutes to spare. The Fire never trailed again.<\/p>\n